Comment Conduct Policy
How we keep the comments worth reading.
Comments on Less Likely are for substantive, good-faith discussion of statistical methods and their use in medicine and nutrition. Be civil, stay on topic, and argue with evidence rather than insults.
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Comments on Less Likely exist for one purpose: substantive, good-faith discussion of statistical methods and how they are used (and misused) in medicine and nutrition. Disagreement is welcome — sharp, well-argued disagreement especially. Bad faith is not.
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The short version
Be civil. Stay on topic. Back claims with evidence. Attack arguments, never people. If you would not say it to a colleague’s face at a seminar, do not post it here.
What belongs here
- On-topic, constructive contributions — questions, counter-arguments, worked examples, references, and clarifications that move the discussion forward.
- Evidence and reasoning. This is a site about getting the statistics right. Cite sources where you can, show your reasoning, and quantify claims rather than asserting them.
- Good-faith correction. If a post contains an error, point it out — with your reasoning or a reference — and it will be acknowledged and fixed. Correcting the record is the whole point of the place.
What does not
- Personal attacks, harassment, or threats of any kind, toward the author, other commenters, or third parties.
- Hate speech or discrimination — including slurs or demeaning content targeting protected characteristics.
- Spam and self-promotion — advertising, affiliate or SEO link-dropping, and repetitive off-topic links.
- Derailing — off-topic tangents, flooding, or thread hijacking.
- Bad-faith argumentation — deliberate misrepresentation, fabricated data or citations, sealioning, and knowingly false claims presented as fact.
- Impersonation, doxxing, or illegal content — posing as someone else, publishing others’ private information, or anything unlawful.
Moderation
Comments are powered by Disqus and are moderated. We may hold a comment for review, lightly edit it for formatting, or remove it if it breaks the rules, and we may block accounts that do so repeatedly or egregiously.
Moderation targets conduct, not viewpoint. A careful objection — even a blunt one — is always welcome; an insult never is. Removing a comment is not a judgment that you are wrong, only that the way it was made breaks these rules. Final decisions rest with the site author.
Corrections and disagreement
Statistical claims are provisional, and this site is not exempt. If you think an analysis, figure, or conclusion is mistaken, say so — and say why. The most useful comments here have always been the ones that caught something.
Privacy and disclaimers
- Comments are public and are stored and processed by Disqus, a third-party service governed by its own privacy policy. Do not post personal or identifying information you would not want public.
- Nothing in the comments is medical, clinical, or financial advice. Posts and discussion here are for education and methodological debate only.
- You retain ownership of what you write, but by posting you grant permission for your comment to be displayed on this site.
Reporting a problem
Use the flag option on any comment in Disqus to report it, or reach out via the contact page. Reports are reviewed in good faith.
Changes
These guidelines may be revised as the comment community evolves; the effective date above reflects the most recent update.
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